What to Say?

I hadn't written about the "Flotilla Massacre" yet because: (a) I have been very busy with work and life, (b) I didn't want to say anything until I understood what had happened, and (c) everyone else was saying so much that I didn't think I had anything original to add.

Well, nearly a week later, all three conditions still stand.

So I will just point you to some of the better articles on the subject that I have come across.

I will say that I think, that while the mis-handing of the interdiction, and the resulting deaths, is what is getting most of the headlines, and may in the end be the thing that causes the most fallout, it is not the main point. The main point is the wrong headed policy of a near total blockade of goods into Gaza.

But enough from me. If you are not sick of this topic yet, read the following:

• The Tikun Olam blog tries to give other perspective on what actually happened on the boat. Turns out there is more than the one perspective: the video released by the IDF that we have seen endlessly on American TV news and echoed in this juvenile "defense" of Israel video that was actually distributed by the Israeli Government Press Office! And now the Guardian reports that Turkish forensic staff examining the bodies of the Turks killed on the ship are saying that several of them were shot in the head at point blank range after they had already been shot in the legs, arms or abdomen.
• M.J. Rosenberg, writing in PoliticalCorrection, points out that the whole point of the flotilla was to break the blockade, and there is nothing wrong with that. He also notes that Israel is unlikely to transfer all goods on the ships, minus any weapons found (and there have been none found yet!), to Gaza - it actually never made such a promise - as it blocks many civilian goods on a daily basis.
• The Globe and Mail's lead editorial on the subject, "Block the Guns, Not the Butter", argues - correctly in my opinion - that Israel's blockade is, and has been, too broad. One can quibble with the details of this editorial, but the basic principal (see the headline) is correct.
• And finally Rick Salutin, also writing in the Globe and Mail, argues that (a) Israel is tone deaf to world opinion (see video discussed above), (b) that the tide has turned regarding what people will forgive Israel for, and (c) Israel's friends had better tell her so.